Members of Backwell Karate enjoyed an excellent time at the Southern Region Championships, bringing home 11 medals in total.

Backwell Karate dominated the Karate Union of Great Britain’s Southern Region Championships after taking home three titles and 11 medals in all.

Backwell competitors won both senior male events, with wins for Ashley Hall in the senior male kumite (fighting) and Tim Griffiths in the senior male kata. Ashley and Tim combined with Steven Connell to take gold in the senior team kata event with a precise performance of their championship winning kata, ‘sochin’.

A clean sweep of the senior male events was, however, one step too far. In the team kumite (fighting), the Backwell Karate team of Ashley Hall, Tim Griffiths and Ian Connell got off to a great start.

After beating the renowned London Marshall Street dojo and 2015 champions, Chelmsford, in the eliminations they reached the final against an in-form Red Lion team, from Sussex.

With one win each and a tie after all three fights, Red Lion took the victory on count back of points scored throughout the match, giving Red Lion gold and Backwell the silver.

There were also medals for Fergus Puddy, Tim Griffiths, Steven Connell, Ben Lee, Josh Mashford and Ian Connell in the kumite events and Steven Connell in kata.

The event, which took place in Reading, brought together karate exponents from across the Karate Union of Great Britain’s Southern Region, covering almost 60 clubs.

“This was our most successful Southern Region Championships for a few years,” said club instructor, Tim Griffiths.

“It also showed that we’re one of the stand-out clubs in the area, particularly for the senior events, where we’ve taken home a team title in five of the last six years. We now take confidence and a whole lot of learning to our national championships, which take place next month.

“It’s a big event, but we have every reason to believe that we can bring home medals on the national stage too, like we have in the past.”

Backwell Karate has a limited number of new starter spaces for men and women of all ages during April and May. Visit backwellkarate.org for more information.